The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-01-07
CALLING A HALT /

After allowing the railroad wreckers
full rein to do as they liked for the last
quarter acentury-to consolidate, wipe
out, freeze out, squeeze out, pool out or
parallel the railroad lines which local
pride or enterprise had built or created
at such great cost, some of the Judges
seem disposed to interpose check to
the operations of the schemers, as in
the case of the " Wabash system" now
the subject of a bitter controversy as to
its possession, and those opposed to the
methods by which immense fortunes
have been accumulated by the assist
ance of judicial decisions affirming the
validity of former depredations have
hailed the manifestations of resist
ance interposed by Judge Gresham in
the appointment of Thomas M. Cooley
as Receiver as the initial step in pro-
ceedings to curb the rapacity and greed
of the combination so long in control.
leading them to think his conduct en-
titles him to nomination for President
in 1888.
There is without doubt strong and
growing conviction that this business of
"wrecking' is producing the widest posi-
bic gull IN society separating the i'm
mensely rich from the superlatively poor,
creating an antagonism inconsistent with
the existence of freemen and free insti-
tutions, and tending to despotism on the
one hand or anarchy on the other.
As long as these operations, involving,
according to the popular idea, the exer-
else of great financial talent" trans
ferred only the earnings of numbers in
small amounts, inflicting upon them on
ly individual losses, which were endured
by force of an innate pride leading to
their concealment, they were uncom-
plainingly tolerated, particularly when
the courts directly or the law tacitly
gave sanction to the proceedings, whether
actually done or supposed to be given,
respect for law inclining them to submit
without murmur, every thing went on
swimmingly, each scheme or com bina-
ton becoming the prelude to holder and
more audacious ventures, until the re-
suits, when fully revealed, as in this Wa
bash case, appear bewildering in their
extent, and colossal in their proportion,
a tangled web of legal intricacies requir-
| ing the skill of a Master" to unravel
and adjust.
But things have been very long COM
ing to the point when resistance to the
schemes of men having much money
could be successfully made or attempt
ed, with the hope of assistance from the
Courts. divide and Conquer" has been
the motto of the wreckers, and still is,
and of course a conflict of authority is
imminent.
One thing is certain-the state must
control the railroads and corporations
which they have created hitherto with
out restricting or properly defining their
powers and limitations to far greater
extent than it has done. Whether that
shall be done by the Courts depends up
on Congress or the State Legislatures
furnishing the means to their hand, for
the chancery powers of the Courts ex-
tend only to the equitable distribution
Of losses, Or to putting things as far as
they may---in their original position--to a
very small extent to their inhibition or
prevention ; and the common law is
notably powerless to control modern
wrecking of corporate properties, they
being later nventions-devices of the
last century, unthought of, and not in
conception when its provisions were
wrought into Shape o. formulated by
Coke and Blackstone.
People may not be ready to nominate
Judge Gresham for President on the
single issue of regulating the Wabash
SYSTEM" but the candidate, whoever he
may be, will have to be in sympathy
with the increasing conviction of that
great body which believes that corpora
tions, limited in number and in the ex-
tent of their power, practically uncon-
trollable, are increasing to dangerous
extent, and becoming destructive not
only of all individuality, but even of the
family relation. B.